


The Ring Cycle

by springburn



Series: Dr Who mini fics and prompts [7]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Feels, Grief/Mourning, Loss, Love Confessions, Separations, whouffaldi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 03:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4860503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springburn/pseuds/springburn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor is alone aboard the Tardis, is he hearing things? Is he going mad?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ring Cycle

**Author's Note:**

> This is from a prompt idea given to me by songtothesirenposts  
> Thank you so much!! 
> 
> It is centred around the hug we see aboard the Tardis in the season nine trailer.  
> It is my own interpretation of that little scene.  
> Obviously it is purely supposition!!  
> Hope you like it!!!
> 
> If you've never listened to Ride of the Valkyries from Wagner's Ring Cycle, give it a whirl !!

THE RING CYCLE.

So quiet.  
It had been that way for days.  
Drifting, aimless and hopeless.  
So tired.  
The man who barely needed sleep.  
A deep, bone numbing weariness overwhelmed him.

He stood, where he often did, leaning against the main console.  
Lost in thought.  
Then, as if to break his reverie......  
Laughter.  
A merry peel of happy laughter, that echoed from somewhere behind him.  
His head snapped up sharply, he turned to follow the direction of the sound.  
But there was nothing. No one.  
"I'm hearing things old girl." He whispered.

oOo

Nuts and bolts, wires and screwdrivers, connectors and transformers, scattered around his feet.......tinkering.  
Gave him something to do.  
Take his mind off the emptiness.  
"Dammit." The wrench rolled away.  
Reaching under the console to retrieve it, he felt it was put back into his hand, by unseen fingers.  
Bringing his head up hurriedly with a shout of surprise, he banged it hard on the panel above him.  
"Ow!"  
Nothing...... no one there.  
"Ghosts. Do you hear that old girl? Ghosts."  
Back stiff from bending, he straightened up, yawned and headed to his room.  
The Timelord needed to sleep......again.  
Was he sickening for something?  
The Tardis lowered the lights, in sympathy, as he stepped into his chamber.  
Glancing around him, almost as if he expected someone to be there.  
In the shadows, smiling.  
This was torture. The loneliness.  
He missed her every waking hour. Dreamed of her when slumber overtook him.  
The pain was endless. 

oOo

Waking with a start........music......loud and insistent.  
Throwing back the covers, naked, he ran......ran towards the console room.  
Strains of Richard Wagner.......The Ride of the Valkyries.........bellowing out.  
Horribly loud.  
Echoing through the corridors, as he hurried in search of the source.  
Ceasing abruptly just as he reached the top of the stairs.  
"WHAT?" He cried. "WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME!"  
No reply. Just silence.  
The laughter, and the touch of the hand, he may have imagined, but not the music.  
He definitely heard that.  
And why that piece of music particularly?  
He had no idea. 

Reaching for the sonic in his inside jacket pocket, he scanned.  
Turning on the spot as the device whirred.  
Not a sound. Not a reading. 

He dozed, sitting in his chair.  
In his dream he was wandering along the bookshelf, on the Tardis mezzanine.  
Fingers tracing the spines of the books, pulling one down at random, replacing it.  
Pulling another, then, seemingly satisfied he returned to sit in the chair.  
When he woke, a book lay open on the small table beside him.  
A sudden gust of wind, blew the pages, flicking through them, then ceasing as abruptly as it had begun.

There was no draft in the Tardis.

Reaching out he picked up the fat volume.....  
JRR Tolkien.  
The Lord of the Rings.  
And the page at which the breeze had stopped the turning leaves?

"One Ring to rule them all.  
One Ring to find them.  
One Ring to bring them all.  
And in the darkness bind them.  
In the Land of Mordor where the shadows are."

The Doctor traced his long middle finger down the centre of the book, smoothing it flat. What was this?  
What was going on?  
He yawned, stretched.  
Replaced the volume.  
Around this time Clara would make cocoa, he smiled at the memory.  
The time that passed for evening, in a place where Time wasn't relative.  
It was their little ritual, cocoa before they went their separate ways to bed.  
Well, he didn't often go to bed, but he made a show of doing so, for her sake. After a short time he would re emerge and do Timelordy things, while she slept blissfully.  
Since Christmas, she'd stayed on board.  
No going back to her flat, no Wednesday travel date.  
She was there, beside him, everyday.  
Which was why he ached so much for her now. 

oOo

He made his way to the kitchen.  
Warmed the milk, added the powder and watched as it slowly sank and mingled.  
Then bowed his head, shoulders shaking.  
He wept.  
Suddenly the television monitor above his head, flickered into life.  
On its own.  
There was no sound, just a music video playing.....  
Beyoncé.  
Subtitles appeared under the scene.  
"Oh oh oh, oh oh oh,  
If you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it"  
The Doctor watched the scene play, with startled eyes, his cheeks wet with his salty tears.  
Good God! He was going mad.  
He'd always joked he was a mad man in a blue box, it was actually coming true.  
Reaching up, he switched off the screen.  
Made his way to the library.  
It had always been her favourite place, now it was his.  
Sitting down, his hands spread on his thighs, he looked down at them.  
Contemplating their assymmetry. 

Long bony fingers, large, artistic in this regeneration.  
His ring, he'd found it in amongst some oddments from his very first incarnation.  
The green stone glinted in the light.  
Curious.  
He'd never noticed it before.  
When he'd chosen the long coat with the red lining, he'd thought it rather dashing, and the ring, nestling there in its box, was a symbol, he thought.  
A representation of all the companions, all the loves, the lovers, his wives, everyone he was ever close to.  
That's what it meant to him.  
But, until now he'd never noticed that sparkle, it was almost as if the stone was turning cloudy.  
Looking closer he could see a swirl there, movement.  
He was sure of it. 

His Tardis. His sentient helpmate and friend. Trying to tell him. All along.  
So obvious.  
"I AM AN IDIOT!!"

As if a mallet hit him over the head.  
Stunned.  
THE RING.  
Was it possible?  
Leaping up he sprinted to the console room.  
Breathless, excited.  
Sliding the top band from his finger, leaving its plain twin behind, he carefully placed it, stone downwards, into the memory portal socket.  
Flicking the levers and switches to the 'on' position , hearts pounding, he stood back, waiting.  
Leaning against his dear Tardis.  
Without warning, from behind, arms encircled him.  
Solid, real arms.........around his shoulders, her cheek against his own.  
He could smell her.  
Raising his hand, he patted her arm gently, a slight smile playing on his lips.  
"I thought you'd never work it out. Clever boy."  
"My Clara."  
"Of course, I'm not really here, but whenever you need me, you just have to do this, and I'll be here for you. No matter what."  
"I miss you Clara. I miss you so much."  
"Of course, you do. It's still so raw. But you carry me with you always. I'm there on your finger."  
"I didn't realise. It belonged to my first self."  
"Yes. So that he could always have his Susan. When he missed her most of all. And he did, often. Now it's yours. And you can have me. Whenever you need me. I'm right here.  
For as long as you need me."  
"Oh, my Clara, I'll always need you. What will I do without you?"  
"You will carry on Doctor. You will continue. Gradually the pain will fade. You will find love and hope in the most unexpected of places. And you will find people who need you and love you everywhere you go in the Universe."  
"But none of them will be like you. I love you Clara. And I never told you. Not properly. Not outright. Now it's too late."  
"I knew Doctor. I knew you loved me. When you helped me find Danny after I threatened you, when you should have hated me.....sent me away for betraying you. Then I knew you loved me."  
"But I never actually said the words."  
"You didn't need to. I loved you too. I said them. But you thought I was talking to Danny, not to you."  
"What a pair we are!"  
"So many words, Doctor, so many of them lies. But now we don't need to lie anymore.  
We both know the truth."  
Her arms continued to surround him all the time they spoke. Her head against his cheek, her light like an aura around him.  
His hand still resting on her forearm.  
"You should rest now Doctor. Rest and sleep. No more bad dreams, no more calling out in the dark.  
We will always be together, my one heart with both of yours. Till the end of your life."  
"I never even thanked you."  
"Thanked me for what?"  
"Thanked you for being my carer, my teacher, my friend."  
"But not my boyfriend......eh Doctor?" She smiled sadly, and placed a kiss on his temple.  
"Everything Clara. You were everything. Everything I ever needed."  
"Doctor. You are tired. You will make yourself ill with longing, with wishing, and that has to stop. You must move on, and I'm here to help you do that. I must thank you."  
"Thank me?"  
"For making me feel special."  
"Thank you for the same, my Clara."  
"Time to go Doctor, time for me to leave you for the present, the projection is limited, I wouldn't want you to wear it out!"  
"Goodbye Clara."  
"Goodnight Doctor. Not goodbye. Now you can rest peacefully."  
He switched the levers to 'off', removed the ring and replaced it on his finger.  
The vision vanished into the ether, like a spectral puff of smoke.  
But the feel of her arms around him lingered, and he smiled to himself.  
Tutting and shaking his head, as he made his way to his rest.  
"Oh Clara, Clara, Clara, my Clara. I love nothing in the world so well as you." 

From somewhere up ahead of him, he swore he heard that merry laughter again. 

The lights dimmed, as he lay down, amongst the cool sheets.  
The ghost of her memory forever by his side.


End file.
